party planning

There's just nothing like waiting to the last minute, is there? I've known for months that we were going to have a "real" party for L'il Sis when she turns 5. ("Real" in the sense that we'll be inviting people from outside our family) So... had I done anything planning-wise? Had I even thought of what the theme would be or what types of games or activities to do? Um, that would be no.

So, with less than 2 weeks to go to B-day, I really had to get in gear. On Monday, I secured a site. We decided we didn't want to do it at the house for a number of reasons, including parking. So while I toyed with a few other ideas, we ended up with a screened in outdoor room at our neighborhood clubhouse. One of the other ideas I had was a local drive-thru animal park/amusement park. But then I called and realized that it would cost us $450 (plus tax) at a MINIMUM. I love my child, but that wasn't going to happen.

After locking on the site, L'il Sis and I headed to a party store. We needed to get at least one of the invitations out that afternoon and we still didn't have any. She was really set on having a bunny theme. Yeah. Do you have any idea how hard that is, especially with Easter over?! I managed to get her to change her mind. Her obsessions are bunnies, Hawaii (because of lava -- don't ask), and Egypt (because of mummies -- again, don't ask). I figured Egypt might be equally difficult, not to mention it might creep out the other kids, so I steered her toward a luau/beach party theme. So that's what we're going with. Invites have now all gone out.

Eschewing the $200 option of having art teachers come and do crafts and activities with the kids (we're only talking about 9 at the most, 2 of them ours!), I headed to a craft store today hoping to be struck with inspiration. Foam visors were on sale 2 for $1. I also found flower- and sea-themed foam stickers. So we're going to put foam stickers on foam visors. Easy enough for 5 year-olds.

Coming up with the cake idea was easy enough. Execution might be a bit more difficult. I'm going to make a doll cake and decorate it as a hula-girl. I think I'll need some luck and well-wishes sent this way for that one! On the up-side, I've done doll-cakes before. The downside is I haven't attempted this level of decorating before. Just a few weeks ago, I made one for my niece. It was the first time I'd done one by myself (the first one was about 7 or 8 years ago when Jody roped me into helping her make one for her daughter. Oh, and neither of us had ever decorated any type of cake before. That's a whole other post, though.) By the time I had my niece's cake "dressed," I decided I'd better quit while I was ahead and didn't add any more embellishments. The back-up plan is a generic birthday cake from the grocery store if the cake fails miserably!